


This Feeling

by notaproject



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Last Words AU, Multi, Read chapter notes for trigger warnings, Soulmate AU, mostly canon compliant until post game, slight AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-04-11 19:48:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19116517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notaproject/pseuds/notaproject
Summary: Her fear of deviants began after her father was killed in August. Hell, it was more a fear of androids themselves. So the last thing Lea anticipated was falling for the Deviant Hunter when he showed up to the murder next door.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely did not plan to post this ever, it was supposed to remain in my computer for eternity. But here we are! I got inspired to write this because of [Deviant Behavior](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14851244/chapters/34379699) by [ Precursor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Precursor/pseuds/Precursor). I'll try to post updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I apologize if they might be a little short sometimes. I'll try to post any short chapters on Tuesdays so the wait isn't too long.
> 
> Trigger Warning for this chapter: Death in the family

“I’ll tell you a story,” she sighed, “before it tells itself.”  
Lea sat down at the edge of the rug that rested before the fire. The room was dark except for the amber light cast by the gentle flames. She looked at her hands, surprised they weren't more banged up. Lea cast a glance over her shoulder to see the figure that was strewn across the couch, a blanket partially covering their form.  
She turned her attention back to the boy sitting on the rug beside her.  
“Alright,” Micah said quietly, eyes flicking to Lea before settling back on the fire. His knees were at his chin, arms wrapped around his legs. She felt bad for him, huddled there, looking small and alone.  
He was eighteen, but he looked younger, a fact the boy hated. His brown eyes reflected the glowing fire, lighting them up despite how lifeless they seemed at that moment. That curly brown hair of his was in desperate need of a trim, barely brushing his shoulders and reaching more than two inches straight up off his scalp, and his pale skin practically glowed in the firelight. While the right sleeve of Micah’s shirt was slightly bunched up, part of a phrase imprinted along his inner forearm could be seen. The text was illegible in the dim lighting, but Lea knew what it said; she’d read it a million times. The crisp black lettering read “I’ll be here when you get back.”  
The boy shifted miserably as he tried to get comfortable in the cold room. The heavy feeling of guilt in Lea’s chest grew.  
“Micah, I’m—I’m sorry I got you caught up in all this,” she said quietly.  
“I just want to know why.” His cold eyes never left the fire. “After what happened to Dad, what’s happening in the streets, you’d still harbor one of these things?”  
Lea winced at the accusing question. “He isn’t like that.”  
“I don’t know what you think it is, but right now I’m thinking you’re delusional, so start talking or I’m leaving.”  
She shifted uncomfortably. “Okay, here’s what happened.”

 

November 5th, 2038

The cops had come to Lea’s door around eleven. She’d still been awake, so their arrival hardly bothered her at first. What did bother her was the fact that there were so many squad cars out front of her neighbor’s house.  
“Ma’am, we’d like to ask a few questions,” one of the officers said as she opened the door for them.  
Through their questioning she learned that one of her neighbors had been killed by his own android, or so that’s what the police suspected. Lea grew anxious at the thought of where the android could have possibly gone. She voiced to the officers that she wasn’t even sure that the neighbor still lived there, seeing as the place looked abandoned and she never saw him outside. In fact, Lea didn’t even know his name before they told her; Carlos Ortiz.  
She felt no pity for the accused android. She hated deviants. They’d taken her father from her just a few months prior, and the wounds were still fresh. Lea told the police what she could, which wasn’t much, before locking everything up behind the officers. She wouldn’t let her little brother be taken from her by an android, too.  
As she glanced out through the shuttered and locked window, Lea saw a haggard old man arriving with a young man in tow. For a brief moment, it crossed her mind that the young man was rather attractive. Then he turned and she could see the glowing blue armband adorning his arm. She jerked back from the shutters, shaking herself. She was disgusted with CyberLife for always making androids look so perfect.  
Hearing the sound of footsteps padding towards her, Lea spun around to see Micah approaching, wearing one of his tank tops and a pair of shorts.  
She’d hidden everything from him at that time, and, oh, how she’d come to regret that. She told him that there was an investigation going on in the neighborhood, just the typical Red Ice bust. He took her word and went back to bed.  
Lea stayed awake, warily watching the other house for signs of the deviant. It wouldn’t escape justice if she had anything to say about it. When there was movement through the higher window next door, it prompted her to get closer, almost pressing her nose against her own window. Whatever was moving wasn’t clear at all; the window of the attic was far too grimy. Lea only knew that there was something up there.  
Tugging on boots and a rain jacket, she made her way to one of the cops outside, who promptly tried to shoo her away.  
“Lady, we’ve got enough gawkers here. Please return to your home.”  
Lea pushed back the hood to address him. “I have something you might want to know.”  
“All right, what?” He sighed but didn’t discourage.  
She leaned in and quietly told him what she saw, to avoid the other onlookers from hearing and alerting who (or more likely what) was in the attic. Surprised by her tip, the Officer quickly radioed it in to the other police inside the house.  
Satisfied with her contribution, Lea started to head back towards home when people started to leave the rundown house. There was a blood-splattered android being brought out by police officers, most likely the deviant. But in front of them was the android accompanied by the gruff, older man from earlier. The deviant wasn’t even putting up a fight; it was simply allowing itself to be walked towards a cruiser. Lea scoffed quietly, angry that her neighbor’s android decided to play along and be obedient in its own way. A far cry from the murderous deviant from a few months before.  
She spotted the old man again. He looked annoyed yet slightly impressed, staring at the back of the android that seemed to be working with them.  
“An android that hunts androids? Isn’t that a little weird to you?” a cop nearby was saying.  
“If it means not dealing with as many deviants personally, it works for me,” her partner responded.  
So, it was some kind of deviant hunter? Lea wondered as she squinted at it. The jacket read “RK800.” It had a pleasant enough face, with deep brown eyes and brown hair that had been flattened by the rain. It kept playing with a coin, tossing it back and forth between its hands. It caught her staring, and she hastily looked away.  
“I’ll be going home now,” she told the officer she’d given the information to.  
“Right. Have a good night.”  
“You too,” she said without thinking. He snorted.  
She could feel the deviant hunter’s eyes on her back as she walked away. The door securely locked behind her, and she took a full breath. Her back slid down the door as her feet fell from under her. Something about the way that android had looked at her, that RK800, it made her beyond uneasy.  
Her heart didn’t stop hammering until the car containing the RK800 was gone. She watched it leave through her window.  
It took a solid fifteen minutes for the shaking to stop. Lea had never been very fond of androids. She’d talked their mother out of getting one on more than one occasion before her father died. Now there was no question that there would be no androids in this house. Lea avoided their blank stares whenever she went out, and she flinched away from them when they approached. Having one stare her down as she walked from a crime scene? Not exactly comforting to her paranoia.  
On top of that, there were rumors that deviancy spread like a virus. If CyberLife made a deviant hunter, how long would it be before it, too, became deviant? She shuddered at the thought.  
The RK800 haunted her dreams that night, the handsome face appearing at every turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I'm planning to make the other chapters longer than this, this just felt like the right place to stop for now. Honestly, I might post chapter 2 sometime today yet. See you again soon!


	2. The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lea just loves poking her nose where it doesn't belong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, I decided that chapter 1 was too short to post by itself so here's chapter 2 in the same day.

November 6th, 2038

She woke up breathing hard and covered in a thin veil of sweat. Sunlight was creeping through the windows, barely. She checked the clock and discovered that it was just after seven. She swung her feet out of bed, shivering as they touched the cold floor.   
The sun crept higher and higher into the sky as she waited for Micah to wake up. Her dreams chased her, the android coming to mind no matter how much she pushed it away. Around nine she finally decided to stop waiting for Micah. She changed into jeans and a hoodie and went out. The weather was brisk, but she’d dealt with worse. She had to learn more about this new android or the fear would drive her insane. The best medicine for fear was knowledge.  
When she arrived at the police station, she had to call on someone she rarely saw these days.  
“Lea? Is that you?” Chris Miller called.  
She smiled and waved, holding up a lunchbox. “I heard you forgot something this morning?”  
His eyes flicked to the lunchbox, and he instantly understood. She needed to talk to him now. And she would come up with whatever reason she could to see him. He brought her back to his desk.  
“What did you bring me?”  
She handed him the lunchbox, which contained a single chocolate chip muffin. He took a bite. “What did you need to talk to me about so urgently?”  
She glanced around the precinct, fingers gripping the arms of her chair just a little too tightly. She spotted the markings on his left wrist, “See you tonight,” written in white ink. “That new android you guys are working with. The RK800.”  
He choked on his muffin. When his throat was clear, he asked, “You know about Connor?”  
“That’s its name?” As much as she disliked androids having human names, it certainly made things easier.  
Christ nodded. “CyberLife sent it to help hunt deviants. It’s paired up with Lieutenant Anderson right now.”  
“So it really is a deviant hunter. Don’t they realize that deviancy seems to spread like a virus? What if their precious hunter gets it?” Lea demanded, not necessarily speaking to Chris.  
“Listen, Lea, I know this is a personal subject for you, but please don’t get involved in this, okay?” He leaned in, resting his elbows on his desk and supporting his chin. “You can’t keep trying to get involved in deviant cases. And you probably won’t like this, but you should be thanking Connor.”  
“I should be what?” It was Lea’s turn to choke, though she had no muffin to blame it on.  
“Connor took down the android responsible for your father’s death.” He saw the look of inner conflict on her face. She never could hide her emotions well. “Look, I know how much you hate deviants, but leave this stuff to the cops, all right? You’ll just get yourself hurt. It’s admirable how much you want to help, it really is. Micah and your mother need you now more than ever, though, and what if a deviant gets to you before we can help? We can’t risk you getting hurt.”  
She grit her teeth. “That android is going to be more of a liability than a help, Chris. It’ll turn on everyone eventually.”  
“Lea.” He was solemn as he held her gaze. “I couldn’t get rid of Connor even if I wanted to. That’s above my paygrade.”  
“It’s a time bomb,” she insisted, crossing her arms and bouncing a knee as her anxiety bubbled over. “It will become deviant, mark my words.”  
“Officer Miller,” an overly pleasant voice said from directly behind Lea, “does this young woman have another deviant case for us?”  
Chris jumped, having somehow missed the very topic of their conversation approaching the desk. “Oh, uh, no, Connor. She’s just concerned about the widespread deviant cases we’re getting lately.”  
“I see.” Lea didn’t dare turn around. Everything in her went rigid, including her thoughts. She was so overridden by fear that she couldn’t even run. “I can assure you, Lieutenant Anderson and I will hunt down the deviants. You have nothing to worry about.”  
Shit. It was addressing her directly now. She steeled her resolve and looked into its eyes. Why did they design it to be so damn tall? She could see the details of its face far more clearly in the precinct’s lights, and she instantly knew that it’d haunt her much more vividly in her dreams that next night. She noticed the little tuft of hair that was out of place and cursed herself for briefly thinking it was cute. As its eyes met hers, its LED briefly flashed yellow.  
“Oh. Well, um, thanks.” She shifted in her seat. She couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t go away.  
“Officer Miller.” Connor finally stopped drilling into Lea. “When will Lieutenant Anderson arrive?”  
“Depends on where he was the night before. If we’re lucky, we’ll see him by noon.”  
Connor didn’t seem to like this answer. Lea sank into her chair as she saw the slight frown appear. Connor nodded and walked away after saying a polite “thank you.”  
Lea hid her face with her hand. “I don’t like that thing.”  
“Don’t be so quick to judge. Connor’s been a reliable asset so far from what I’ve seen.”  
“You always were an optimist. Believe me, Chris; this ‘Connor’ is going to get someone hurt.”  
She stood, ready to leave. “I’ll get going and stop interrupting your work.”  
“You’re fine, but all right. I’ll see you around?”  
Lea nodded. “I’ll try to say hello more often.”  
As she was about to head out the door, she felt someone staring. She spun around to find Connor standing right behind her. How he moved so silently, she didn’t know. And she didn’t like it, either. “Can I help you?”  
“I overheard you expressing concerns related to Officer Miller’s safety in my presence.”  
Why did androids have to have such good hearing? “Uh-huh.” She crossed her arms over her chest, staring him down.  
“I perform regular self checks to ensure that my software is stable. You have no need to worry about Officer Miller. I will not become deviant.”  
She nodded, slowly backing away towards the door. “Whatever you say.”  
What possible reason did they have for making an attractive detective android? It was annoying and distracting. She left the precinct after a polite farewell, feeling mixed up.  
Stop it. There’s no reason to feel this way.  
It was harder to justify her thinking to herself when she couldn’t exactly pinpoint what she felt toward this new android.  
She took a bus back to her house, glad to put distance between herself and her problems. Mom still hadn’t come home, but that wasn’t uncommon these days. She usually spent the night on the couch in her office, so busy working overtime that she couldn’t come home. Micah was awake, though.  
“Morning,” he greeted, still rubbing at his eyes.  
“Morning,” she returned. “How’d you sleep?”  
He shrugged. “I guess I’ve slept worse? The cops milling around last night made it hard to fall asleep but afterwards it was fine.”  
Police had always made Micah nervous. Lea never understood that, seeing as Micah had never broken even the tiniest of laws.   
“I didn’t get to bed til rather late myself.”  
“Why were you up and gone so early, then?” he asked, suspicion barely creeping into his voice.   
That gave Lea pause. How much was she willing to say? “I went to visit Officer Miller.”  
Micah was pouring himself some cereal. “Want any?”  
She shook her head. She was nauseous still from Connor’s endless stare. “Thanks, though.”  
He shrugged again. “How is Miller, anyway?”  
“He’s all right.”  
“Did he warn you not to go off and hunt down deviants like the vigilante you are?”  
Her blood ran cold at how close the guess was. “Yeah, he did say something like that.”  
“It still won’t be enough to stop you, will it?” he asked as he poured the milk.  
“C’mon, Micah,” she said, plopping into a chair at the table. “You know me better than that. I won’t go off and get myself killed.”  
“Yeah, you’re right. I do know you, and I know how much you want deviants gone. You absolutely would run off and get hurt, if not killed.”  
Lea huffed. “Can we talk about something else?”  
“Okay.”  
She was surprised by how quickly he gave up, but a sleepy Micah was a Micah without much fight to him. Right then, that suited her just fine.

 

After keeping him company through breakfast and making smalltalk, Lea left for work. It wasn’t much, but she had a job at a convenience store in Camden. She took a bus and got there about half an hour before her shift. She was quite surprised to find the police examining her store.  
“What’s going on here?” she asked the nearest officer.  
“A robbery. Please be on your way.”  
“I work here. Did anyone get hurt?”  
“No, Miss. But your boss is probably over there answering questions.” She gestured towards Nick, Lea’s boss, who was standing with another officer.  
Lea thanked her and waited at a respectful distance until the questioning was done. Then Nick came to her.  
“Lea! God, I couldn’t reach you. I wanted to tell you not to come in,” he said, waving his hands all over in the way he did when he was stressed.  
“Sorry, sorry. It’s been a hectic day already, I see.” She glanced past him into the store. “What happened?”  
“Some crazy deviant came in and held me at gunpoint. Robbed the store.” He sighed. “I didn’t think something like this would happen. Those deviant cases always felt like a distant threat, but I don’t know if I’ll ever look at an android the same way again.”  
Nick didn’t know about the circumstances surrounding her father’s death, so Lea didn’t comment. Instead she looked around and spotted Officer Miller not too far away, telling some bystanders to keep moving. She made her way over to him.  
“Lea? What on earth are you doing here?” he asked as she walked up.  
“I was coming to work,” she gestured at the store, “but I guess I’ve got the day off. I heard this was a deviant’s doing.”  
“Lea,” he warned.  
She put her hands up. “I won’t do anything, promise.”  
“Good.”  
She glanced around. Cold fingers danced down her spine as she spotted Connor not far away. It hadn’t noticed her yet, luckily.  
“I should go home,” she said, not taking her eyes off it.  
Chris nodded. “Good idea. Go home and spend time with your brother.”  
“I’ll try. He hardly comes out of his room unless it’s for work.” She waved and started to walk away.  
She cast a glance back over her shoulder as she left. A young woman with a child pushed past her, not even stopping to apologize. Lea brushed it off as them being in a hurry, but she was still mildly annoyed. Another look back showed her Connor leaving an abandoned house and making a beeline for her at full speed. Her heart froze, fear making her numb. It shot past her.  
She turned to see what it was chasing, and saw the woman from before speeding up. She and the girl ran down the street and bolted down a side alley. Lieutenant Anderson ran past Lea as well, chasing his android partner. Lea couldn’t help it. She started running too.  
Normally, Lea wasn’t a follower, but something about this being a deviant hunt made her want to chase after them this time. She disregarded her fear of androids and ran. She passed Anderson in moments and heard him shouting profanity at her.  
She caught up to Connor just as the deviant had climbed over a tall fence separating them from the highway. Connor looked ready to jump over, but Lea beat it to it. She hoisted herself up and over the fence before anyone could stop her.  
Shouts echoed behind her, but she didn’t care. The deviant turned to see her giving chase, and she could swear there was fear in its eyes.  
Good.  
Lea bolted across the highway, barely avoiding being turned into a pancake on multiple occasions. There was more shouting behind her, presumably from Anderson, but she didn’t stop to look. Her eyes were trained on the deviant hellbent on escaping. She made it to the midway point just after the deviant did. The child following the deviant screamed when she saw how close Lea had gotten to them.  
Connor hopped over the guardrails right behind Lea. The deviant took off across the next few lanes of highway, and Connor and Lea gave chase. Connor shouted something, but Lea couldn’t hear it over the noise of the cars. The deviant was almost across. It pushed the girl to safety on the other side, and Lea jumped onto its back.  
The deviant fought back hard, as though it feared for its life. Lea was thrown aside, directly into the path of an oncoming truck. She couldn’t move aside in time. She closed her eyes, trying to reject what she was seeing.  
A hand gripped her arm and yanked. She feared her arm would be dislocated from the force. Arms enveloped her, protecting her from stumbling back into the line of fire. When her head stopped reeling from what had just happened, she looked around.  
The deviant was gone.  
Belatedly, she realized someone had saved her. She looked up to see Connor’s face. Its arms were on her shoulders, securely holding her in place. Her heart was pounding too hard, her breathing coming in ragged gasps. Her fear told her to push it away, logic becoming fuzzy from adrenaline.  
“Are you alright?” it asked, frustration lining its voice at having lost the deviants.  
Lea nodded, too frazzled to speak.  
“Go,” it said, grabbing her hand and rushing across traffic.  
Had its calculations been off by the tiniest amount, she’d have been roadkill. As it was, she escaped without an injury more serious than a scraped knee. She stared at Connor out of the corner of her eye as she hunched over, trying to catch her breath. It, of course, was unfazed.   
She gritted her teeth as it approached. “You shouldn’t have done that. You could have been killed.”  
“I’m aware. You could’ve been killed too,” she pointed out.  
“I cannot be killed; I’m not alive.”   
The simple sentence was jarring to her.  
“Yeah, well, I didn’t die, so no big deal.”  
“You are a civilian. You shouldn't be doing such reckless things,” it insisted.  
She stood up to her full height, irritated that Connor was still considerably taller. “And I don't need you lecturing me on what I should and shouldn't do.”  
It cocked its head to the side, as if this phrase was something it heard often. “I understand that deviants are probably something you despise, but that doesn't mean you—”  
“How would you know whether or not I hate deviants?”  
It blinked at her. “For starters, most people don't cross a highway on foot just for fun. Secondly, I know who you are and how deviant cases may be difficult for you to let go.”  
A chill went down her spine. “What exactly do you think you know about me?”  
“I know your name is Lea Deckart, daughter of Antony Deckart. You're twenty years old and have no criminal record. You—”  
“Alright, that's creepy enough, you can stop,” she said, putting a hand up. “So you know who I am based off my face, I'm guessing. That's certainly comforting, to know anonymity is a thing of the past.”  
Lieutenant Anderson was yelling at them from a distance. The cries caught Connor's attention.  
“I need to go. Lieutenant Anderson will be very upset with me if I don't meet with him immediately. Please refrain from attempting police work in the future unless you intend to pursue a career similar to your father's.”  
Before she could think of anything to say, it turned and left. Anderson yelled at Connor for a few solid minutes, presumably about running off without him. Lea cautiously made her way up the stairs towards them, hoping to sneak past Connor and the angry lieutenant.  
“And you!”  
There goes that plan.  
“Me?” she asked innocently as she turned around.  
“Yeah, you. Don't go chasing after deviants, especially not across highways. You're gonna get yourself killed, kid.”  
“Do I look injured?” Lea asked.  
Connor interjected, “Had I not pulled you to safety or redirected your course on three separate occasions, you would have been crushed.”  
Lea looked away, cheeks burning. “Fine, fine. I'll be more careful.”  
Anderson didn't look convinced, but he walked away, Connor in tow. Connor glanced back at her as they walked away.  
“Hey!” she called out to it.  
Connor turned to her.  
“Thanks. For...y'know, saving my life.”  
Its LED turned yellow for a moment as it processed. “My pleasure. However, I hope I won't have to do it again.”  
“You and me both, buddy,” she muttered. 

 

Lea caught a nearby train just as it was about to pull away. It would take her back towards home, somewhere she could be away from androids for a bit. She slipped into a seat and tried to relax.  
“Everything's going to be fine, Alice,” she overheard. She started to doze, the events and excitement of the day catching up to her. And it wasn't even noon. She looked up, eyes barely open, and had a heart attack.  
The deviant was standing right there with the little girl it'd kidnapped. There was no one else on the train. She could try apprehending the deviant, but what could she do? Androids were stronger than humans; she didn't stand a chance. She wished that she had Chris’ number, but he wasn’t exactly allowed to check texts at work and she couldn’t call him. She caught herself even wishing that the deviant hunter were there.  
“We’ll figure out where to go,” the deviant was saying to the child. “It will be okay.”  
The girl only nodded.  
Lea’s mind started running a mile a minute, trying to figure out how to contact someone, anyone, about the deviant. She decided that getting a good look at the deviant would help in case she tailed them and lost them briefly.   
The deviant itself had short black hair and bright blue eyes. It was wearing heavy winter clothing that didn’t fit quite right. The little girl looked dressed for weather far warmer than what was outside their train. Lea was concerned that the deviant would kill the child sheerly from exposure at this point.  
She picked her brain to remember what Chris’ direct line was at work. If she disguised it as a personal call, maybe she could still give him information. She typed in the number with shaking fingers.  
It rang three times before someone picked up. She really hoped she had the right extension.  
“Hello?”  
Fuck.  
There had to be a way to play it off so that she didn’t draw suspicion from the deviant. “Hey, is Chris around?”  
“Officer Miller?”  
It took the voice saying those words for her to fully recognize who was on the other end.   
Connor.   
Maybe...maybe it was better this way.  
“Actually,” Lea said, glancing at the deviant again, “I wouldn’t mind chatting with you for a bit.”  
“Is this a personal call? I don’t understand. Time is of the essence with these cases. I’m sure you know that.”  
“Honey,” she said, trying to keep her voice light, “I’m going to need you to meet me downtown today, okay? I got off work early and I have a surprise for you.”  
There was silence on the phone for a moment. “Are you in distress?”  
She laughed. “I suppose you could say that.”  
“What is your location?”  
Lea gave it the location as the deviant and child got off the train. She followed, keeping Connor on the phone. Staying inconspicuous as she tailed them was difficult. She gave Connor hints as to her location while seeming innocent.  
Pretty soon she spotted Anderson in the crowd walking not far behind her. The deviant was easy enough for him to see. It didn’t have an umbrella, unlike everyone else in the crowd, Lea excluded. Lea moved aside as Anderson passed her. He looked annoyed, and she started to wonder if that was just his default.  
“What’s happening?” Connor asked over the phone.  
“I just saw Anderson,” she said quietly. She readjusted her grip on her phone, searching for a way to continue smalltalk and make it seem like she was having an actual conversation. “So, how are you two getting along, anyway?”  
“I do not see how this is pertinent information.”  
She rolled her eyes. Damn androids. “Come on, honey, talk to me. It’s not a hard question, right?”  
“I’m sorry, I only take orders from Lieutenant Anderson,” was the stale reply. It was probably something it said often.  
“Alright, alright,” she said, forcing a small laugh. “I won’t pry. I just want to make sure you two are doing okay. He can be so grumpy.”  
“Lieutenant Anderson can be...challenging to understand,” Connor admitted.  
The sudden change in his attitude caught her off guard. She momentarily lost sight of the deviant and Anderson. She began frantically searching for them again as she said, “Oh, really? I never would’ve guessed.”  
There. Anderson was slowly approaching the deviant. He almost had them. She smiled to herself, grim satisfaction filling her at the thought of the deviant being apprehended. Without warning, Anderson yanked the deviant’s arm behind its back, then the other, cuffing it before it could process what was going on. To Lea’s surprise, when she looked for the undoubtedly red LED, she found nothing but smooth artificial skin.  
“Alice, run!” the deviant cried.  
“Kara, I won’t leave you,” the girl said, backing away from the squirming deviant as it fought Anderson’s grip.  
“Run!” it repeated.  
Anderson took an elbow to the gut and was forced to let go. The deviant broke the cuffs, grabbed the girl's hand, and sprinted for an alleyway. Lea followed.  
Lea rounded the corner, but the deviant and child were nowhere to be seen. She walked into the dark alleyway, knowing how stupid she was being. She narrowly avoided being jabbed with a steak knife. Lea sneered at the deviant. This one was just like the one who’d killed her father; feral and out of control.  
“Kara!”  
“Stay back, Alice. I'll protect you.” The deviant's eyes never left Lea.  
Lea didn't dare move at first, her fear of androids taking hold again. She fought it, but it held her fast.  
“Just leave us alone,” the deviant pleaded.   
Something made noise in Lea's hand. It took her a moment to register that she was still holding her phone, Connor on the other end. She started to raise the phone to her ear.  
“Don't move!” Kara said, taking a small step forward.  
Lea froze. Her phone was close enough to hear Connor calling for her, though.   
Kara turned and ran down another side alley, out of sight.  
Lea's muscles unfroze, but she didn't follow this time. She put the phone to her ear at last, answering Connor with a shaky “hello.”  
“What happened? Are you all right?”  
“I was just held at knifepoint by the deviant. They got away. I...I'm sorry.”   
“It's fine.” His tone made it clear that it was not fine at all.  
Anderson rounded the corner, out of breath. “Dammit! Which way did they go?”  
Lea pointed, not trusting herself to speak. Anderson looked around the corner and cursed again.  
“They're long gone by now.”  
“I'm sorry.” Whether she was saying it to the android on the phone or the lieutenant in front of her, she wasn't sure. Possibly both. “I thought I could help.”  
“Are you hurt?”  
Lea shook her head as Anderson looked her over briefly. “It had a knife with it. I couldn't get close.”  
“Is that Lieutenant Anderson?” Connor’s voice came through the phone, startling her. She’d almost forgotten him.  
“Yeah, it’s him,” she confirmed.  
“Please give him the phone.”  
Lea complied and walked a few feet away to give them some space. It also served to calm her nerves.  
The lieutenant turned to face her. “Hey.”  
Lea returned to stand in front of him obediently.  
Anderson handed her the phone, and she expected Connor to have disconnected. However, Anderson gestured for her to put the phone to her ear as he walked away, shaking his head.   
Lea brought the phone closer to her ear. “Hello?”  
“Thank you for your contribution to this investigation,” Connor said.  
She opened her mouth to respond that it wasn’t a problem when he continued, “But I must insist you stop getting involved. You are a civilian.”  
She would've rolled her eyes if not for the fact that she was still so shaken up. “Okay. I'll stop.”  
“Thank you.”  
“Well, it’s been...something to work with you, Connor. Bye now,” she said as she hung up the phone. She never heard what Connor had to say to that.  
Pocketing the phone, she waited for Anderson to give her some kind of lecture about how she should behave like a proper civilian and stay out of the police’s business. He walked back over. It occurred to her that he'd walked away to give her privacy on the phone.  
“Listen, kid,” he started, and she braced herself. “I know who you are. I know deviants are a big deal to you. But this is dangerous work.”  
Didn’t anyone realize she wasn’t dumb? Why did everyone think she had no idea this was dangerous? She knew the risks and took them anyway.  
“I know that. But I didn’t even mean to get tangled up in it this time. It just happened to be on the same train as me.”  
“Why did you call Connor, anyway?” he asked.  
“I meant to call Chris, but I must have misdialed and called Connor’s desk instead. A simple enough mistake.”  
He grunted, staring at her for a second, trying to assess if she was being truthful. He must have decided he either didn't care or had no reason to doubt her.   
“Just don't do it again, understand me?”  
She nodded, barely listening. Something bothered her, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. She said goodbye to Anderson and started walking back towards the train station. She needed to get home and get out of this damn rain.   
On the ride back, she eventually realized it had to do with her conversation with Connor. It was the way it'd sounded so concerned when it asked if she was okay, how it'd sounded so relieved when she promised to stay out of it. It had sounded so human. The thought scared her. What if soon she couldn't tell the difference between an android and a person? Especially if androids could remove that LED from their heads. They'd be nigh impossible to tell apart.  
She shivered, but it had nothing to do with the creeping cold.

 

She was so dazed from the day’s events that she got off on the wrong stop. The doors closed in her face as she tried to re-enter the train. Cursing her inattentiveness, she tried to figure out where she was. The signs said Ferndale Station.  
Great. She was lost.  
She knew she should just wait for a train, but she wanted to go home, and who knew when the next train would be by? She decided to just get a taxi.  
She found a main road, but there weren't any taxis around, so she started walking. A few wrong turns later and she found herself staring at a rusty old ship that probably hadn't moved in years. It was amazing it could still float. She squinted at the letters that had nearly been eaten by rust.  
“Jericho?” she breathed. “Well, that tells me nothing about where I am.”  
She turned and left the way she came. Finally, she found a main road again and managed to find a taxi. When she got home, she flopped onto the couch and fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. In the Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lea faces her fears. Kind of.

It was around four in the evening when Lea woke up again. The door closing had been what made her stir, and she greeted her mother as she sat up.   
“What were you doing sleeping on the couch?” her mom asked.  
She came further into the room, taking off her coat. She always wore long sleeves these days, hiding the “I’ll be back soon” written on her left shoulder in fading black ink. They were the last words her husband had ever said to her, and she hadn’t been the same since losing him.  
Lea rubbed her eyes. “Long day, that's all.”  
“What kind of long day?” Her mother raised an eyebrow, suspicion clear on her face.  
Lea winced, both at her sore back from how she slept and at her poor phrasing. Mom knew a thing or two about long days.   
She decided to stick with most of the truth. “Work was closed because a deviant broke in last night. Then I got lost on the way home because I got off at the wrong stop.”  
“You got off at the wrong stop.”  
Lea nodded, knowing a lecture about being aware of her surroundings was coming.  
And so it began. She was firmly scolded for a good five minutes before her mother got tired.   
“I'll be more careful,” Lea promised for the millionth time that day.   
“You'd better be.” Her mom's voice cracked on the last syllable, betraying her actual worry.   
Lea hugged her and went to the kitchen.  
“Damn it, Micah,” she mumbled when she opened the fridge to see the milk gone.  
“What's wrong?” Her mom called from the living room.  
“Micah used all the milk and I'm hungry.” She shut the door. “I’ll go out and get more.”  
“In this weather?” her mom asked.  
Lea nodded. “I need food. I don’t mind.” She paused. “Okay, I mind. But I’ll do it anyway.”  
The older woman looked concerned, but then decided not to fight Lea on it. Lea grabbed her raincoat, boots, and umbrella before stepping out onto their porch. She found a taxi with significantly more ease than earlier in the day and stared out the window absently as she travelled. To her frustration, her mind kept circling back to that damn detective android and the deviant.  
The deviant, who clearly impersonated a mother. Nothing made sense about it; androids couldn’t be moms. The way it cared for that child, shielding her... It didn’t add up. Deviants put themselves first. They always did. Self-preservation seemed to be a hidden part of their programming that came out when they deviated. Lea shook her head, trying to clear the image of Kara’s face, its eyes wide with terror and anger.  
Connor took its place. He was so expressive. She didn’t understand why a detective needed to come across as so human. It was deeply unsettling. He genuinely seemed to care what happened to her when she was chasing Kara. She tried to brush off the momentary feeling of safety that had come over her when his arms were around her on the highway.  
Wait.  
Him? Since when was Connor a “him” and not an “it”?  
The car stopped, jolting her from her thoughts. She got out, unfurling her umbrella. She got a gallon of milk and paid for it, heading back out into the weather. Finding another taxi to get her home wasn’t hard.  
When she got home she felt even more disheveled than she had after being held at knife point by Kara. She knew her obsession with deviants could and would get her killed. But she also knew that she could help. Or, at least, she thought she could. Letting Kara get away that morning had been a huge blow to her confidence. Maybe her phobia was stronger than she’d thought.  
The complications that would ensue from her having a verifiable phobia of androids made her realize it was time for some kind of countermeasure. She needed to find a way to cure herself. Maybe exposure therapy could work. The idea made her shudder as she poured her cereal, causing her to spill some. She cursed, cleaning it up.  
She stared at her bowl for a moment. How could she get close to an android long enough and frequently enough to get over her fear? She poured the milk. The family sure as hell wasn’t about to buy one, even if they could have afforded it, which they couldn’t. Setting the bowl on the table and sitting in front of it, she struggled to come up with a solution.  
“I’ve never seen someone so angry at a bowl of cereal before,” Micah commented, scaring her. “What did it do to you?”  
She sighed. “It’s nothing personal to the cereal, promise.”  
He went to snatch an apple from the fruit bowl on the table. “Alright, so what’s on your mind?”  
“It’s nothing,” she said, waving him off. She couldn’t say what compelled her to keep him shut out, exactly. Maybe it was the fact that she felt like she had to be the strong one after Dad died.  
“Sure,” he said, taking a bite of his apple. “C’mon, you can talk to me.”  
She wished it felt like she wasn’t burdening him with her troubles. Little did she know he’d learn it all eventually, anyway. The conversation went nowhere as she ate her cereal, so he changed the topic after a few tries.  
“I’m in line for a promotion at work,” he said nonchalantly.  
Her head snapped up. “You are?”  
“Mhmm, manager position. No more fixing the busted popcorn machine for me.”  
“That’s great! You realize you’ll be the one to deal with angry customers, though,” she pointed out, just so he knew what he was getting into.  
“I can handle it. I just hate smelling like butter for eight hours after cleaning that damn thing.”  
“That’s fair, honestly.”  
When her cereal was finished, she went back to thinking about her predicament. Micah brought in the soggy mail while she was staring abysmally into the sink. He set it on the table with a wet slap.  
She stirred from her reverie, coming over to see what they’d gotten. A series of colorful papers printed with digital ink stared back at her. She dug through them and retracted her hand as if burned. Micah looked over her shoulder.  
“Eden Club?” he asked. “What’s that?”  
“It’s nothing,” she said, turning pink. It was an android sex club, and its presence never failed to make her uncomfortable.  
Micah picked up the flyer and read the back. “Oh.”  
“Yeah, not exactly a place this family will be visiting.” She plucked it from his hands and tossed it in the trash. “I pass it to and from work every damn day. I don’t need them coming to my house and trying to get me to be a patron now.”  
Micah crinkled his nose. “That’s unpleasant.”  
“Yep.”  
As she walked up the stairs to her room, she tried desperately to get the new idea out of her head. It was a way to get used to androids, but at what cost? Would she sacrifice her dignity like that? Her hard-earned money?

 

The answer was yes, she was willing to sacrifice both of those things for this. She snuck out of the house without Micah or her exhausted mother seeing her. She took a cab for the fourth time that day and headed for the one place she never thought she’d go.  
The car rolled up to Eden Club and she looked both ways up and down the street before exiting. If she saw a single face she knew, she’d bolt. Luckily (or maybe unluckily), nobody was around to see her enter.  
By no means did she intend to actually sleep with an android. That was going way too far out of what little comfort zone she hoped to establish while she was there. Instead she found the least threatening looking female android she could (which was hard since most of them looked the same), bought it for half an hour, and went to the nearest room before any humans could see her.  
Traci was its name. She couldn't bring herself to even look at the android for the first five minutes. Traci didn't seem to mind. It just lounged on the big bed, waiting for orders. Eventually, Lea sat down next to it. She pulled the covers up to avoid getting distracted by the perfect physique all the Eden Club androids had.   
Just breathe.  
Sitting near one wasn't so bad. It only looked a little unsettling, since everything but that LED appeared completely human. Lea looked at its face, examining the fake smile.  
“What do people see in you, I wonder,” she muttered.   
She regretted it as the Traci began reciting a laundry list of reasons why people purchased an android companion. Lea held up a hand, and the Traci stopped.  
“Well, I suppose that is one plus. They actually listen.”   
Unless they're deviant, anyway.  
She shook the thought from her mind. This android wasn’t deviant, and the distinction was important. Fearing deviants was fine, more or less; fearing the average android was not.   
“Tell me about yourself.” she told it.  
“I am a WR400 model. My name is Traci. I have been active for one year, eight months, and thirteen days.”  
Lea hummed. What else was there to exposure therapy? She supposed that contact might help, to show that they’re not normally deadly. Tentatively she reached out and took the Traci’s hand. Traci smiled at her, its programming probably assuming that she was about to initiate something. Instead, Lea looked over its features, trying to figure out what gave it away as being an android instead of a human. After a rather exhaustive search lasting more than ten minutes, she couldn’t find any indication that the android wasn’t human aside from the LED. She left the Traci’s clothes on, but she looked just about everywhere she was comfortable with.  
How could she possibly rest easy knowing that androids were so realistic and could be hiding in plain sight?  
A knock at her door twenty six minutes into the session scared her so hard she fell off the bed. The door opened and an officer she didn't recognize came in.  
“Sorry to disturb you, Ma’am, but we've got some questions for you,” he said.  
She backed up, scooting along the floor as her face turned red at having been caught with an android.  
“M-me? Why?” she stammered.  
“I'm afraid there's been a murder here. We're evacuating all patrons and questioning them.”  
“A murder?!”  
She followed the officer, the Traci dutifully going back to its place inside a tube.   
She spotted someone she recognized when she walked out, and annoyance filled her.   
Detective Reed was walking away from another room that had the door open. He had quite a reputation for being an ass, and she’d heard plenty of stories about him from her father. Lea glanced in as the police walked her to the front of the building. She briefly spotted a Traci with blue hair walking away from the scene, having exited a nearby door and aiming for the back of the building. She wondered where that Traci’s client was.   
She was so distracted she ran straight into someone.   
“Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to—” She cut off with a yelp.  
“It's all right. My apologies,” Connor said as he steadied her.   
Shit.  
“Connor? What are you doing here?” she asked, light headed.  
“Isn't it obvious?” Anderson said, going around Connor. “There was a deviant here.”  
He looked at her. “I thought you didn't like androids, kid. Guess I had you pegged wrong if you're in a place like this.”  
“It's not like that,” she protested, knowing it was useless. Of course they'd think she was there for the sex. It's what the entire establishment was for.   
“Yeah, sure.”  
Anderson headed for the same room Reed had left. The officer from before gently guided Lea away from Connor. She wanted to follow him, to help him hunt the deviant that had killed a human.  
When the questioning was over, Lea refused to go home. She needed to figure out what was going on inside, though they wouldn’t let her back in. Finally, she decided to try and go around back. Just as she rounded the corner, two Tracis were hopping down on the other side of the fence. One of them was the one with blue hair she’d seen before, and the other looked suspiciously similar to the Traci Lea herself had rented.   
Steeling herself, she chased after them.  
“Stop!” a voice called out to her.  
Without thinking, she stopped. She turned to find Connor at the fence the Tracis had climbed. He had his fingers between the links.  
“Let them go,” he said breathlessly, like even he couldn’t believe he was saying it.  
Later, Lea would wonder what possessed her to listen to the android who gave her orders. It certainly wasn’t the fact that he sounded desperate. It definitely had nothing to do with the pleading look in his eyes. And it sure as hell wasn’t because of how utterly human he seemed in that moment.  
“Connor?” She stepped closer to him, something inside her wanting to comfort him and help him not look so damn lost. “What’s wrong? What happened?”  
“I…” Connor stared at the ground as Anderson came up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.  
“It’s for the best,” Anderson told him.  
Connor’s LED was bright red, something Lea had never seen the ever-composed detective have before. She took a few more steps closer to the fence. Hesitantly, she reached up to grasp his fingertips where they came through to her side of the fence. He looked at her strangely. She looked away, unable to believe she was trying to comfort an android.  
She didn’t miss Anderson’s look of incredulity. And neither of the humans missed Connor’s LED turning back to yellow at the contact.  
“It’s all right,” she told him, forcing herself to make eye contact.  
He looked away, opting not to say anything. He gently extracted his fingers from hers and let his hands fall to his sides.  
“I suppose we should go,” Connor said, some of his robotic tendencies returning. But this time Lea knew him just a little better. She didn’t miss the slightly hollow tone of his voice, like he was still confused and maybe even a little scared.  
Anderson took the lead as they headed back into the building. Lea was left standing in the cold rain, wondering why Connor made her heart ache so much.  
She shook herself from her thoughts and headed back towards the front of the building. There was a question she had to get answered before they left. Connor and Anderson were just about to get into Anderson’s car when she sprinted across the street.  
“Wait!”  
“Jesus, what is it now?” Anderson grumbled, but he stopped.  
She ran around to the passenger’s side, where Connor stood with the door still open. She bent over, panting. She looked up at Connor.  
“Are you okay?”   
It was a mystery why she felt so strongly about knowing if he was okay or not. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she couldn’t get that troubled look of his out of her head.   
His light was still yellow. “I need time to process.”  
She searched his face, still seeing traces of that very human expression he’d worn a few minutes ago. He still had a slight frown. His eyes still looked a little lost, like he was looking through her.  
“Connor,” Anderson said in the softest tone Lea had ever heard him use with the android, “get in the damn car so we can go home.”  
“Wait.” She put her hand up in a time out gesture. “You two live together?”  
“That’s not any of your damn business, now is it?” Anderson said, gruff as ever.  
Lea crossed her arms, trying to disguise a shiver.  
“Do you have a means of transportation to get home? Your body temperature is getting low,” Connor observed.  
“I’ll find a c-cab.” Lovely, now her teeth were chattering.  
“Lieutenant Anderson?” Connor called.  
Anderson sighed. “Get in the car. We'll take you home.”  
Lea didn't have the energy to fight them on it, so she got into the back seat. She told Anderson her address and just shivered in the back as the car warmed up. The silence was painful until Anderson turned on music. He played it far too loud for Lea's comfort, but she silently put up with it. When they pulled up to her house, she thanked them and got out.   
She rushed inside, both to get out of the rain and to get away from Connor. She stripped off her wet clothes when she reached her room on the second floor. When she looked outside, she found the lieutenant’s taillights through the rain. She watched them go. Something deep inside her still ached for reasons she couldn’t identify.  
Her dreams seemed intent on explaining exactly what she felt; the only issue was that she didn’t speak the same language as her dreams. Some things, however, didn’t need to be translated. The way Connor’s face haunted her dreams that night was far different from the previous night. This time, no matter what she dreamed, she always came back to that fence separating them, the cold rain seeping into her clothes at her looked at her pleadingly.  
Let them go.  
The sun wasn’t even up yet when she woke up. She looked at her clock to find that it was one in the morning. Where did this android get off ruining her sleep like this? She couldn’t get him out of her head. And it was especially frustrating that she couldn’t stop thinking of him as a him as opposed to it.  
She needed some air. The smallness of her room usually felt cozy to her, but this time it just felt suffocating. The rain had turned to snow as she stood in their backyard, feet protected by fluffy boots. She stared up at the night sky filled with light pollution.   
Her nose was so cold it felt like it might fall off when she finally went back inside. She kicked her boots off by the back door and trudged back upstairs to her bed.   
As she was down on her bed, she muttered, “This time, I want to dream of rainbows and puppies. No more of this android. Got it, brain?”  
She rolled over and was asleep in moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. Brewing Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lea doesn't get in trouble for once.

November 7th, 2038

Evidently her brain didn’t get the memo. Lea still woke up the next morning with the image of Connor firmly in her mind.  
“This is getting ridiculous.” She blew her hair from her face.  
A quick text sent from Nick told her that she didn’t need to come in today, either, but he would need her the next day. She sent an acknowledgement text as she trotted down the stairs, nearly slipping on the second to last. Her yelp alerted Micah to her entrance.  
“Morning, spaz.” He high fived her as she passed.  
“Smart ass,” she muttered.  
She headed straight to the door. “I’ll be back later.”  
“Where are you headed?”  
Lea jumped. She hadn’t even noticed her mom sitting on the couch nearby. “I’m going to say hi to Chris Miller down at the station.”  
“What for?” Mom asked.  
“He said I should visit more often.”  
Mom shrugged. “Alright, just be back earlier than you were last night, alright? Where did you even go?”  
“Gottagonowbye!” Lea shut the door as fast as she could without slamming it.  
Face red, she started the long walk to the station, hoping to work out some of her new issues before she got to see Chris.  
First thing on her list: admitting she wasn’t going there to see Chris. She was absolutely going to check and make sure Connor was okay after what had happened to him last night. At first, she tried to convince herself it was because she wanted to know because of sheer curiosity. What was happening to the android who was supposed to be perfect?  
But she knew the truth pretty quickly. Something about him made her worry. Whether it was for his sake or the sake of the people around him, the jury was still out on that one. Androids were never supposed to be this human. She worried that her prediction was coming true; Connor might become a deviant yet.  
Putting that aside, she needed to come up with some excuse to see Chris again. She wondered how often she could get away with the excuse that he forgot his lunch. She stopped to get some food again, hoping the reason would work twice.  
She was about halfway there when she turned her mind to Anderson. He was a confusing individual. One minute he acts all gruff and rude, the next he’s taking care of an android like it’s a person. She wondered just what was hidden in his past to make him that way.  
She halted in front of the police station, bracing herself. Holding her head high, she walked inside. The receptionist let her through again easily enough, to her relief.  
“Hey, Chris,” she said, settling down next to his desk in a chair.  
He looked up from his terminal. “Lea! Good to see you.”  
She handed over the food and he tucked it neatly away to be eaten later. “So, how have things been going?”  
“It’s hard to get any sleep with a baby in the house, but otherwise things have been going all right.”  
“Glad to hear it.” She looked around the station. Anderson’s desk was empty.  
“Something tells me this visit isn’t for me, though, is it?” Chris asked.  
“Huh? No, of course it is. Why wouldn’t you think it was?” Her attention snapped back to him.  
“One: you’re normally not this fidgety.” She held still, staring at her hands. “Two: I know you were at the crime scene again last night.”  
“That wasn’t intentional, I swear,” she said, meeting his eyes.  
He gave her a look of disbelief.  
“I…” What could she say? She was there as a patron? He knew her feelings on androids. “I promise, I didn’t get involved on purpose.”  
He nodded. “If I find out otherwise, I’m not letting you through next time.”  
“Aw, c’mon, Chris,” she pleaded. “Why don’t you believe me?”  
“I know you, Lea, and I know that you don’t like androids. And you especially wouldn’t sleep with one.”  
“I don’t hate androids,” she said. “I hate deviants.”  
“Remember what you said about Connor at first? Excuse me for not believing your grudge isn't against all androids.”  
She winced at Connor’s name. “Maybe I was a little hasty when I said that. He isn’t so bad.”  
“‘He’?” Chris repeated.  
Heat hit Lea’s face like a flash fire. “What?”  
“You’re calling an android ‘he’ now? Maybe you really were at Eden for another reason.” He stared at her around his coffee mug as he took a few sips, wondering how she was going to react.  
She’d never felt so embarrassed in her life. She wanted to sink through the floor and vanish. Anything to get away from Chris’ stare. She hadn’t wanted anyone she knew finding out about her little exposure therapy trip, but now Chris knew, which meant it could get back to her family if she didn’t play her cards right.  
“Chris, it wasn’t like that either,” she insisted.  
“Alright,” he said, leaning forward, “I’m all ears. Tell me why you were really at the crime scene last night.”  
She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “I don’t hate androids. I’m scared of them.”  
He raised an eyebrow.  
“I wanted to go someplace where there were androids for exposure therapy. I can’t live in Detroit and be scared of androids. I won’t be able to go outside. So I decided to try to combat this stupid phobia.” She waved her hands too much as she talked, and she knew it. It was the biggest sign she was flustered. She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them, waiting for him to laugh.  
“That’s actually not a terrible idea,” he mused. “But, really? A sex shop?”  
“I couldn’t think of anything else,” she mumbled. “Where else could I visit that has a bunch of androids I could interact with?”  
Before Chris could say anything, they heard bickering coming from somewhere else in the station. They turned in their seats to find Connor and Anderson walking in. Connor seemed to be lecturing the lieutenant about his dietary habits.  
“Lieutenant,” Chris said as they passed his desk. “What are you doing in on a Sunday?”  
Anderson stopped and spun around, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder to point at Connor. “This fuckin’ thing won’t let me have one day of rest. Woke me up at ten this morning to drag me back here.”  
Lea wondered if Connor really had gone to the lieutenant’s house with him the previous night. Anderson didn’t seem to enjoy an android’s presence any more than Lea did, so she wondered what could have convinced him to let one into his home.  
“Lieutenant, I apologize for your lack of rest, but I am not authorized to work without you,” Connor said in his defense. “And these cases are a very pressing matter.”  
“Listen, you might be a tireless machine, but I’m not.” Hank didn’t even turn to face Connor as he spoke. “I need my sleep.”  
“If you had gone to bed before three in the morning, I’m sure waking up at ten would have been much easier.”  
Lea had to resist the urge to giggle. Was this android a detective or a nanny? They bickered over Anderson’s habit for a minute before Anderson himself decided to walk over to his desk. Connor, however, stayed behind for a moment, looking at Lea.  
She knew her cheeks were still red from her conversation with Chris. The heat was intolerable, but there was nothing she could do.  
“I hope you aren’t here to get yourself into more trouble,” Connor remarked, smiling faintly.  
Was an android capable of sarcasm? Apparently so. “Not yet, but we’ll see how the day goes.”  
“Deviants do seem to appear when you’re around,” Connor noted. “Perhaps it would be better for our investigation to keep you around.”  
“I don’t think your partner would like that very much,” Lea said. Chris stared at her like she’d grown a second head.  
“Lieutenant Anderson does seem to rather dislike having partners. But I wouldn’t mind it.”  
Wait. What? She wasn’t sure she heard him correctly when Anderson called him away. He excused himself from the conversation, leaving Lea and Chris staring after him.  
“What was that?” Chris asked.  
“I have no idea. I thought he’d find me annoying since I’m a civilian that keeps getting involved, but—”  
“Not that,” Chris cut in. “I was talking about you. Fear of androids, my ass.”  
“Connor’s just different, that’s all.” Why did she suddenly feel so defensive?   
“Uh-huh,” Chris said, clearly not believing her.   
She couldn’t help noticing that the LED on Connor’s temple was finally back to blue. It had been yellow their entire ride home the previous night. The question she couldn’t answer was why she cared so much about his state of mind.  
“I don’t care, you hear me? I’ve had enough of working on my day off,” Anderson said, loud enough for Lea to hear.  
“Lieutenant, we’ve only been here for ten minutes and we’re all on mandatory overtime—”  
“You know where you can put your overtime?” Anderson said as he walked away from his desk. As he went past Lea, she heard him muttering, “I’m too sober for this shit.”  
“Lieutenant,” Connor called out.  
“I’m going home, and you can’t stop me,” Anderson said over his shoulder. He disappeared from sight, leaving Connor looking confused and almost hurt.  
There was that feeling again, that feeling Lea couldn’t identify whenever Connor looked this dejected.   
Everyone in the station had turned to see what the lieutenant was yelling about this time, and with his absence most of those stares had shifted to Connor. He didn’t even seem to notice. He sat down at his desk slowly, and everyone else went back to work.  
“Does Anderson usually blow up like that?” Lea asked Chris.  
“Every day, especially since Connor got here.”  
“Wow.” She couldn’t pry her eyes away from Connor as he slowly got up and left as well.  
“What’s with that look?” Chris asked.  
“Hm? What look?” Lea turned back to face him, Connor gone from sight.  
He shook his head. “I think you should head on home, Lea. Your whole reason for being here just left, anyway, right?”  
“I told you, I was here to see you,” she insisted, getting up.   
He snorted. “Sure, it isn’t because you’ve got a thing for Connor. Not at all, right?”  
The heat in her face was back with a vengeance. “What did just you say?”  
“Don’t worry about it. Get on home.”  
She scurried from the station, muttering about how wrong Chris was. She didn’t have a “thing” for an android. No way. Not happening. Nope.  
As fate would have it, Connor and Anderson drove by right as she reached the road. Connor glanced at her as they passed, his brown eyes sad. He looked like a puppy, for God’s sake.   
That moment lasted a small eternity while Lea struggled with tearing her eyes away from his. In reality it probably lasted about three seconds as they drove off, but for her it felt far longer. That feeling in her chest intensified tenfold. Finally, it ended. Connor was gone again. It seemed to be a frustratingly common thing for her to watch him disappear lately.  
Chris was still wrong, though, right? He had to be. There was no way she had some kind of feelings for Connor. No way at all.  
She went home, feeling more tired and confused than she had in a long time. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than to forget about Connor for ten damn minutes. Micah helped her with that.  
He invited her to watch TV with him, and she accepted the opportunity to watch silly cartoons with her little brother.  
“So where were you today?” he asked on a commercial break.  
“I went to see Chris again,” Lea said. “I think he misses the family.”  
“It has been a while since we’ve really seen him,” Micah agreed. “Maybe I’ll go try to see him soon.”  
“I think he’d like that. He’s not getting much sleep with his new kid at home.”  
They made smalltalk for a while, and it was unbelievably relaxing for her. She needed to get her mind off everything. She was sinking into her chair, finally calming down after the last few days.  
The rest of her Sunday passed by without event. She just unwound, napping here and there, reading, spending time with her mother. Their mother invited Micah and Lea to attempt to bake some cookies with her, and of course shenanigans ensued. Flour ended up all over the kitchen, but Lea was more than happy to clean it up if it meant seeing her family smile.  
Mom had been in an emotional coma of sorts ever since they lost their dad. Seeing her finally have some light in her eyes again meant everything to Lea. They snacked on their partially burned cookies before Lea offered to make an actual dinner for them. Her mother, glad for the reprieve, agreed to let Lea do it.  
She didn’t realize the tears were falling until one hit a dish she’d just dried. She was so elated at having her family acting alive again.   
“Lea? Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Her mother darted from the table to comfort her daughter.  
“It’s alright, Mom. I’m just happy,” she sniffed.  
That, of course, prompted her mom to cry, too. Soon even Micah joined in, hugging the pair of them and tearing up “just a little” himself. So, naturally, he was sobbing harder than either of them.  
When the crying fest was over with, Lea continued her role of doing the dishes with her mother’s help. They were able to reminisce about Lea’s father fondly and with minimal tears. Whenever her mother started to cry, Lea would dab at her tears with her drying cloth.  
Lea decided to go lie down again after the cleanup had finished. She went to her room and flopped onto her bed, burying her face in her pillow as more tears leaked out. She hadn’t had a perfect relationship with her father, sure, but they were on friendly enough terms when he was killed. There was little she could do to soothe the ache in her chest when she thought of him.  
However, when she thought of androids, her brain no longer jumped straight to the deviant who’d killed him. Instead, Connor always came to mind. She wasn’t sure she liked that change. Her father wouldn’t want her to hold a grudge, especially not for his sake, but she felt that her anger was one of the few things keeping her together. If she lost even that, what would she have left?  
She glanced at the clock and found that it was almost two in the morning. The time always got away from her when she was thinking too deeply.  
She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. This whole situation with androids was getting beyond confusing. She decided to sleep on it. Maybe everything would make more sense in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
